Please, Won't You Push Me for the Last Time

~Kellin~

Dinner with Vic was perhaps the best dinner I could even imagine having. I mean, we just sat there, talking about dumb things like class and the weather, but we would have conspiring glances every once in a while, to indicate how much more we know about each other than anyone else in the room knows about either of us. And the old city, the view in the restaurant of it was fantastic. The way you can see almost every name written on it clearly, I don’t think I could imagine a better evening. 


And that’s why we decided to climb the fence and see the old city from the inside. It wasn’t hard to do; the fence isn’t built to be a physical barrier, just to let people know it’s dangerous and they have no reason to be there. It was Vic’s idea to come here, but I think he just suggested it because of how many questions I was asking him about how people got up to the top, if the paint is old or new, etc.

“Let’s go see the other side,” Vic suggests now that we’ve spent a few minutes just marveling at the buildings in front of us. They don’t look as crumbled as I expected. There’s vines growing over the top, and the bricks on them are darkened from rain, the corners filled with dirt and leaves, but they’re still standing tall. Not as tall as the buildings further behind them though. I’m not sure where exactly we are but I think we are somewhat close to the water.

We get around to the other side, and it’s even darker here. Turns out there’s another building right behind this one, and only a few feet is in-between.

“This is an alley,” I said, remembering the word from some journals and books I’ve read. I never expected them to be quite this dark though, but perhaps that’s because there’s no more city lights here.

“What’s that?” Vic asks me curiously.

“It’s like… people used to want their buildings to be separate from each other, but they still needed to be close together to fit. So instead of just putting a wall between them like we would, there’s just some space in the middle. People would walk through them sometimes. Or use them to do things they don’t want other people to see. It wasn’t very logical I guess.” I explain simply.

“Hey Kellin,” Vic looks at me, half smiling.

“”Yeah?” I question.

“Let’s go inside the building,” he says, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards what must have been a back door at some point.

“Wait hold on we don’t know if it’s safe in there or if something might fall and the door might not even…” I start to object but before I can finish he’s already pulled the door open and pulled me inside.

It’s bigger than I expected it to be in here. And darker. I can’t see much except that the ceiling is way higher than it needs to be, and looks fairly stable from what I can tell in the dim light. It doesn’t matter though because before I can even process what this place is like, Vic has me pushed up against the door we came in, and he’s suddenly pressed close against me, kissing me. It takes me almost a full minute to react and kiss back, but he catches on right away when I do, moving his lips against mine and pulling me forward away from the wall just enough to wrap his arms around me.

I don’t know if it’s the excitement from being in a forbidden, unknown place where the walls could cave in at any moment, or just Vic himself, this perfect, creative, hot guys kissing me, or just a combination of the two, but I’m completely sure that I feel something. I feel exhilarated. Like I’m ready to do anything. And things could easily go further between me and Vic right now, but I pull back a bit, breaking the kiss and smiling at him, watching his expression. I want to see more of this place, and besides, we have places to be tonight. We can’t just stay in this doorway all night.

“Okay,” I say to him, “let’s go explore.”

He smiles and we just wander toward the other side of the room. It looks like your standard abandoned city building I guess, if there is even a standard for that. There’s some plants that have grown in through the windows onto the walls, and roots that have cracked the floors, but it’s not too extreme. Everything looks mostly… empty. There’s a staircase and next to it some kind of door with a lot of buttons. I think this might be what journals have referred to as an elevator. Back when they still had illness and aging wore you down, people would use these little lifting rooms instead of stairs. I think that’s what this is.

I look at Vic, who looks completely confounded by the thing, but he looks at me and smiles, I love when he does that. He acts like I’m the best sight he’s ever seen or something. I wonder if this elevator still works. I push the button with the arrow that points up, and to my surprise a little circle of light shows up around it.

“What is this?” Vic asks, and I can’t help but giggle a little at his expression when the door seems to cut in half and slide open. Instead of answering him, I grab his hand and pull him inside. I push the very top button I can find on the inside. It says 12. As soon as I push it, the door slides back together and the ground starts shaking. Shit. Maybe this is a bad idea. Is there a way out?

Vic seems equally concerned, and when we start moving up, he looks to be almost completely thrown off balance. Both of us immediately react to all this by squeezing one another’s hands even tighter though.
“What’s going on Kellin?” Vic asks me, looking a little more serious than the last time.

“It’s an elevator?” I say, a bit unsure and nervous myself, “um, it’s a way to go upstairs without taking any stairs. These were a big hit when there were still people who couldn’t walk and climb easily.”

“Oh,” he says simply, as if he didn’t really process what I said. The ground seems to jump a little bit before feeling solid again as the door splits itself in half and Vic and I hurry out before even processing what we’ve just stepped out to.

The room up here is completely set up, with tables and chairs around them. Some of the tables were filled with books, others with art and supplies to make art and some with candles in all sorts of colors, some with various musical instruments and what I think must be recording equipment, some with a mix of everything. The most captivating part though was the plant holders that circled the entire room, full of some kind of plant that climbed all the way to the ceiling before sprouting into yellow flowers about the size of my face. There’s lights on up here too, I just realized.

“Looks like we aren’t the only ones who’ve had this idea,” I say to Vic.

“Yeah,” he says looking around in awe, “Kellin this place is amazing.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” I say, and we walk over to a table with all the books, and I realize that they aren’t just books; they’re photocopied journals. You can see the individual handwriting in each, but it’s clearly not handwritten. On the top of all the books is a handwritten note though.


Dear whomever finds this,

If you are someone who has wandered here, against all the rules, I’d like to welcome you. You are in the right place. We have a nice collection here of things from the modern world. That’s right, my friend, none of this is old or outdated, we maintain it so nothing is here for more than a year. Every creation here was made by one of your peers. Please use the blank materials as you please, and leave here whatever you’d like, enjoy everything here, but leave everything created by others as undamaged as you found it.

If you are, however, an authority, here to remove the evidence of the existence of this place, I would first of all like to offer a solid fuck you.
Secondly, I would like to let you know that this is only the beginning. There is much, much more, and there is, most importantly, people ready to protect the good side of being “corrupted” or “sick” as you call it. This is simply a warning to you. We are stronger than you are, and we will win.

Enjoy your findings (or your war preparations),
AWG


Vic and I look at each other for a moment, this is some serious shit, to put it bluntly. I can’t quite process what I’m feeling, but I think it might be a little bit of fear. I’m glad though. It’s a feeling. What’s this about a war though? That’s a lot to think on.

“’AWG’”, Vic reads, “you don’t think…”

“Alex?” I interrupt, “I think it was definitely Alex.”

“Should we ask him about it?” Vic asks me.

“I don’t know. Probably not tonight. We should get going though,” I say. We are already going to be late to tonight’s party.

“But I wanna stay here,” Vic pouts, which is adorable.

“I do too,” I say honestly, “but we have places to be,” I pull him in for one last kiss in this magical place before we leave, but I know this will not be our last visit. And I smile at that thought, because I love the idea of coming back to a forbidden place with Vic. And I know I don’t quite have a handle on my emotions, but I know I have feelings for Vic.